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Superintendent's performance objectives and targets set

St. Landry Parish School Board member Candace Gerace listens during a special board meeting Thursday to discuss perforance objectdives and targets to the school board superintendent's contract. Also pictured is St. Landry Parish School Board Superintendent Edward Brown.(Photo: Freddie Herpin;ODW)

The St. Landry Parish School Board passed new performance objectives and targets for Superintendent Edward Brown, including targets to increase state exam scores by students in the school district by 1 percent.

The board worked to set new guidelines to evaluate Brown every year in December. The evaluation is made of six performance objectives and six performance targets that mostly consists of how district students perform in state tests, the district’s dropout rate and teacher and school scoring.

The objectives and targets were approved by the board’s five committee chairpersons, which are president Anthony Standberry, vice president Raymond Cassimere, Randy Wagley, Mary Ann Donatto and Robert Young. But almost every board member did participate in the special meeting and the whole board will vote on the objectives and targets in the board’s next full meeting in June.

Brown signed an extension of his contract in December that will expire in December in 2016. He will annually undergo an evaluation in that month, with his first coming this December.

The targets include the improvement of the 2015-16 state scores for elementary/middle school students by 1 percent, as well as the improvement of test scores by high school students by 1 percent, measured by the results in 2013-14 school year, when tests scores were at 61 percent.

The other targets include keeping or improving the district’s graduation rate at 74.6 percent, keeping or improving the teacher scores at effective or highly effective, and schools that were graded either C, D, of F in 2013-14 show a 1 percent improvement in student achievement and graduation rate in 2014-15.

The performance objectives include Brown keeping the board informed of the district’s finances and budget, keeping and posting reports as required by board policy, being an advocate for the district and its schools, overseeing all academic programs and staffing, working to transition to the Common Core standards, and cooperating in possible litigation.

Standberry said he wanted to use these objectives and targets to properly gauge Brown’s performance. “Last time, we didn’t have a tool to measure his performance,” he said. “This allows us to conduct a proper evaluation.”

Wagley said that Brown doesn’t have to meet every goal or objective exactly, but he should show progress towards that goal.

“Reaching them is not the issue as long as he makes a reasonable effort to those goals,” he said.